Safety device for vertically-moving doors and window-sashes.



B. WEXLER.

SAFETY DEVICE FOR VERTICALLY MOVING DOORS AND WINDOW SASHES.

APPLICATION HLED DEC. 9. I915- Patented Oct. 8, 1918.

I I1 V611 tor.-

TED STATES PATENT orrion.

BENJAMIN WEXLER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGN OR TO THE PEELLE COMPANY,OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SAFETY DEVICE FOR VERTICALLY-MOVING DOORS AND WINDOW-SASHES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 8, 1918.

Application filed December 9, 1915. Serial No. 66,007.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN WEXLER, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of New York city, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kingsand State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Safety Devices for Vertically-Moving Doors and Window- Sashes, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a new and improved safetydevice for vertically moving doors and window sashes, so that in casethe chain or rope or analogous suspension device, from which saidvertically moving door or window sash ,is suspended or connected withthe counterbalance weight or with any other counterbalance device,breaks, the door or window cannot drop, but is then suspended andsupported by the safety chain or suspension device, whereas theretofore,it, the safety chain, did not actually support the door or sash, butonly moved with the same for use in case of emergency, which device issimple in construction, can be applied on any new vertically moving dooror sash or on any old door or sash.

In the accompanying drawings in which like letters of reference indicatelike parts in all the figures:

Figure 1 is an elevation showing one embodiment of my new and improvedsafety device for vertically moving doors, or sashes, parts being brokenout and others shown in section.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the pulley for suspending thesupplemental or safety chain, parts being shown in elevation.

I have shown my invention as applied to vertically moving elevatordoors. A door for another purpose or a window sash would be suspendedpractically in the'same manner. The upper door 1 and the lower door 2are guided to move vertically on tracks 3 in conventional manner, thedetails of construction of which form no part of my present invention. Ahousing 4 made in any conventional manner, contains a pulley 5, overwhich a chain 6 passes, which is attached at 7 at one end to the sideedge of the upper door 1, and at the opposite end to the upper end of arod 8, the lower end of which is connected in the conventional mannerwith the top cross bar 2 of the lower door 2 or connected in any othersuitable way to the lower door. The housing 4 is attached to the guiderail 3 which is provided with the customary slot 9, through which thepulley 5 can project in the usual way, so that the chain 6 passes downbetween the side edge of the upper door section 1 and the guide rail 3in the customary manner. The upper door can be over weighted, ifdesired, so that the doors close automatically, or the doors can beevenly balanced, both of which constructions are in general use.

All that I have described so far, is the old and well known constructionof verti- I cally sliding doors.

I attach an additional chain 10 to the upper door section 1 and pass itover a suitable pulley 11 and then pass it down and attach its lower endto the cross bar of the lower door 2 or to the door itself in.

any well known manner. The pulley 11 is contained in a housing 13, whichis secured to the guide rail 3, above the housing 4, but not located inthe same vertical plane as the housing 4, but in a vertical plane inadvance of that of the housing 4, that is, further toward the interiorof the elevator shaft, so that the downwardly extending run of the chain10 does not interfere with the downwardly extending run of the chain 6,but is at the side of the same, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

The pulley 11 is mounted on an axle 14., which passes through verticalslots 15 in the sides of the housing 13, so that the pulley and its axlecan move up and down in the housing 13. The ends of the shaft 14 aresecured in a yoke 16, preferably located on the outer surface of theside walls of the housing 13 and movable vertically thereon. The yoke 16is provided with an upwardly projecting arm 17 with which a spring 18 isconnected, the upper end of which is attached to a bracket 19 on theguide rail 3. The spring 18 holds the yoke raised so that the shaftltwill be at the upper ends of the slots 15. The housing 13 is so mountedthat the periphery of the pulley 11 extends a greater distance beyondthe inner face of the guide rail 3 than the pulley 5 so that the chains6 and 10 do not come in contact and interfere with each other. For thesame reason the end of the chain 10 is attached to be slack were it notfor the spring 18 which pulls up the yoke 16 and thereby raises theshaft 1 1 of said pulley. It is evident that none of the weight of thedoors can act on this chain as otherwise the spring 18 would be extendeduntil the shaft lat rested on the bottoms of the slots. Therefore aslong as the chain 6 is intact and supports the Weights of the doors,from the pulley 5, the chain 10 is merely an idle chain which does notassist in supporting the doors in any p0- sition and practically for allpurposes is a slack chain, except that slight tension that is given toit by the spring 18. WVhen the main supporting chain or any of itsconnections, break, at any point, the door descends until arrested bythe supplemental chain 10. This distance is equal to the length of the.slots 15, which is about equal to one-quarter to one-third of an inch.As soon as the main supporting chain 6 breaks, the weight of the doorsstretches the spring 18 and the shaft 14: of the supplemental pulley 11,rests upon the bottoms of the slots 15, in the sides of the housing 13,and the doors are both suspended from the supplemental chain and can beraised. and lowered, or moved from closed to open position and viceversa, in the conventional manner. There is no danger from the droppingof either door and they work as well with the supplemental chain 10 asthey do with the main chain 6. Of course this supplemental chain 10,which is made as heavy as the chain 6,

is only to be used during the interval between the breaking of the chain6 and the time when it has been replaced by an unbroken chain, when thesupplemental chain again assumes the slack position as described aboveand the spring 18 again raises the pulley 11 for the supplemental chain,into raised position.

Such a supplemental chain may be provided for one or both sides of thedoor or window frame.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is In a device of the character described thecombination of two vertically movable doors, adapted to have movement inopposite directions in the same vertical plane, a pulley mounted in afixed housing, afieXible suspension member connected adjacent the top ofthe lower door and adjacent the bottom of the upper door and passingover said pulley, a second housing mounted adjacent said first I namedhousing having. elongated slots in the walls thereof, a yoke, a pulleymounted in said yoke, the shaft of said pul ley projecting through theslots in said housing, an expansion sprin supporting said yoke, and anadditional chain connected with the upper portion of said lower door andthe lower portion of said upper door, and passing about the pulleymounted in said yoke, said housings being arranged in parallel planes,and one above the other, whereby said suspension means are normally soheld as not to interfere with each other.

Signed at New Yory city, borough of.

Manhattan, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 8th dayof December, A. D. 1915.

BENJAMIN WEXLER. Witnesses:

M. SHAW,

E. S. MITCHELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

